What initially hooks people into listening to WNYC’s “Radiolab,” which is broadcast on public radio stations across the country, is the banter between hosts Robert Krulwich and Jad Abumrad, who respond to philosophical, often scientific questions that arise in the course of guests’ stories.

There’s a nifty production trick inherent in this format, since this very carefully-crafted show – in which guests and experts seem to be in conversation with each other, and which also features Abumrad’s unconventional music (he earned a degree in music composition at Oberlin) – manages somehow to feel spontaneous. But Abumrad and Krulwich are taking a live stage show version of “Radiolab” on the road now, with a Monday, Oct. 7 stop in Ann Arbor. How do they manage to keep the show’s elements of control and unpredictability intact?

PREVIEW

Radiolab

What: Live stage performance of the Peabody Award-winning public radio show, co-hosted by Robert Krulwich and McArthur “Genius” Jad Abumrad, which combines storytelling, science, and music. Ann Arbor’s show will focus on the topic of endings, spanning hundreds of millions of years of history to arrive at the end, again and again, accompanied by a live score created by On Fillmore and Noveller.

“You try to keep the crazy, layered, insane editing style that we have intact, but you also play to people’s eyes, and do things you can’t do on the radio,” said Abumrad. “ … In a way, the process of taking a radio show on stage is about re-creating what you do, but also stepping outside what you do, with puppets and other crazy shenanigans. You blow yourself up a bit.”

But what about that banter? How do you have conversations about the same topic on a national tour without losing that trademark spontaneity?

A lot of it comes down to the feisty, blunt, centripetal nature of Krulwich and Abumrad’s rapport.

“He and I are friends, and we like each other, but we’re very different,” said Abumrad. “It’s fascinating, making this show, in part because we have really interesting fights. For the live show, we’ve had arguments about the stories we’ve included. … And having done the live show 2 times now, we’ve taken our disagreements right onto the stage with us. I feel one way, he feels another.”

The two initially became friends in 2003, when Abumrad interviewed Krulwich (then a science reporter for ABC News) and learned they were both Oberlin College graduates. Their fierce curiosity, and their passion to explore difficult questions in an accessible way, led them to try working together.

In 2002, Abumrad had launched the original version of “Radiolab,” a 2 hour show that gathered NPR stories focused on a particular theme. But one of his first collaborations with Krulwich was a submission to a Flag Day episode of “This American Life,” which Ira Glass called “horrible.”

“Robert was so sure it was brilliant,” said Abumrad. “We sent it to Ira, and he was so fundamentally baffled that he and his staff met twice to talk about how much they hated this two-minute piece. I was in radio at that point, so I was in a fetal position in the corner. But this is the thing about Robert that’s so amazing, is that he just said, ‘No, Ira’s wrong, that’s all. It’s brilliant.’ But when I listen to it, I kind of hate those two guys.”

Nonetheless, by 2004, Radiolab had become an exploratory, music-accented storytelling show with a scientific bent and 2 co-hosts: Abumrad and Krulwich. Shows usually address a few different-but-related stories – focusing on themes like blame, blood, the desire to trace things back to their origins – and combine the hosts back-and-forth with perspectives provided by experts as well as those involved in the story at hand.

Show ideas often start with a compelling narrative the co-hosts feel they can build an episode around, but it may also happen the other way around, wherein the theme comes first, with stories to be filled in along the way. Either way, the crucial constant is the push-and-pull between the co-hosts.

“Because there’s never one way to look at something,” said Abumrad. “The world’s so much more interesting when hearing something new might change your mind. What I hope happens to our audience is, they look at something one way at first, and then something grabs hold of them, and they think, ‘Wait, I never thought of it that way. … I’m a new person.’ Some rebirth happens when you have to change your mind in a radical way. … That feels fundamental to being alive.”

Jenn McKee is an entertainment reporter for The Ann Arbor News. Reach her at jennmckee@mlive.com or 734-623-2546, and follow her on Twitter @jennmckee.